
Pescara Kick Off Season With A ‘Dream’ as They Face Cesena in Serie B Curtain Raiser
By Emmet Gates
Pescara are back in Serie B for the first time in four years.
The Delfini finished fourth in the regular Serie C campaign last season, but managed to see off Pianese, Catania, Vis Pesaro, Audace Cerignola and Ternana in a slog of a month to secure their place in the Italian second tier.
Now the real question is can they stay in the division long-term, or are they just there for an extended holiday?
The Adriatic side feature in the season curtain raiser, which is live and free on Destination Calcio TV, and new manager Vincenzo Vivarini will want to make a good impression.
Vivarini is experienced in Serie B, having coached the likes of Frosinone, Bari, Catanzaro and Ascoli, and the 59-year-old will want his side to hit the ground running as they welcome Cesena to the Stadio Adriatico on Friday night.
Vivarini, an Abruzzo native, is aware of the challenge ahead of keeping Pescara in Serie B and what it means to manage the club.

“You know how much I love this club. Pescara is a symbol for all of Abruzzo and I know its values well,” Vivarini said in his first press conference.
“Serie B is a very different league [to Serie C], much more complicated and tough.
“The league is the best of all because there aren’t those four of five teams superior to the others, you can go and get results anywhere,” he added.
Pescara’s financial state has been improved by the arrival of former player Marco Verratti. The Italian, who still holds the distinction of being capped by Italy without ever having played a single minute in Serie A, invested in the club this summer, holding a 50 per cent stake.
“The dream is to play even just one minute in Serie A with Pescara,” the 32-year-old told Gazzetta.
“We always need to give ourselves a goal: maybe I’ll achieve it now that I’m co-president with a 50 per cent stake.
“You see, only for my Pescara I would have done what I truly wanted to do: they gave me everything and I wanted to repay them from the heart.”
Vivarini would no doubt want Verratti in the heart of his midfield now, pulling the strings and using his wealth of experience to catapult his side up the table.
On the other side of the ring is Cesena, who finished last season strongly and are fancied by some to make a serious dent in the top half of the table again.
Michele Mignani surpassed all expectations with the Cavalluccio, finishing seventh after coming up from Serie C the year prior.
In many ways, Cesena are the model for Pescara to follow.

Top scorer from last season Cristian Shpendi remains at the club, as does the impressive Jonathan Klinsmann, son of Jurgen, and Gianluca Frabotta has signed from West Brom.
Speaking on the back of their narrow 2-1 loss to Pisa in the first round of the Coppa Italia on Monday night, Mignani was positive ahead of Friday’s opener.
“I am satisfied, regardless of the result, because perhaps we deserved even more in the 90 minutes,” he said.
“We saw a lot of positives today, but we can’t stop now: tomorrow we start training again and I’m convinced that Friday evening will be, as I said before, a completely different story.”
The stage is set for the Serie B curtain raiser, a battle between two sides who will likely go somewhat under the radar this season, yet they won’t disappoint.
Watch Pescara vs Cesena LIVE and FREE on Friday at 7:30pm BST on tv.destinationcalcio.com or on our app. Download to your Android or Apple device today.
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